INTERCEPT.
Intercept?
I N T E R C E P T !!
Have you ever wondered what an "intercept" is? You have probably heard people mention that they had an intercept for that patient.
An intercept is exactly that. An interception. If the ambulance service is called out and we are faced with transporting a critically ill or seriously injured patient, we have the option of calling for an intercept. Most of the time we will be transporting this patient to one of the Bismarck facilities. Since that is the direction we tend to go, we use Metro Area Ambulance Service of Bismarck for our ground intercepts. McClusky Ambulance is licensed as a Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance service. That means we don't start IVs or carry drugs. Metro is licensed as an Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulance service. They are staffed with EMTs at the Paramedic level versus our EMTs at the Basic level.
Once we have determined that we have a critical or serious patient to transport to Bismarck, we have Metro dispatched. A Metro unit then leaves Bismarck and meets, or "intercepts" us somewhere between where we pick up the patient and Bismarck. When we meet up with Metro, one of their paramedics boards our unit with their medications and some of their advanced equipment. We then continue on with the transport to the facility. By doing this, having an intercept to get a paramedic on board our unit, we are getting the emergency room to the patient quicker.
There are times where the patient may be critical enough, we will go to Turtle Lake ER for stabilization.
If we are in the northern area of our response district and are transporting to Minot, we have used First Response Ground ambulance service out of Minot for our intercepts.
We also have available to us the helicopter services. There is AirMed from Sanford - Bismarck and First Response Air from Trinity Health - Minot.